Posted on 02/07/2008 11:52:54 AM PST by Kaslin
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination Thursday in front of the crowd that made him the conservative candidate one year ago.
After long remarks defending his conservative beliefs to the the Conservative Political Action Committee's annual convention, Romney said if he stayed in the race it would only strengthen the Democratic candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.).
"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win," Romney said. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."
Romney added: "I hate to lose."
Romney's departure all but assures that Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) will win the GOP nomination. McCain has a substantial delegate lead over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee’s campaign said Thursday he will continue his quest for the Republican nomination now that Romney is out of the race.
“We know it's an uphill climb, but we knew that a year ago when we announced,” said Kirsten Fedewa, a Huckabee spokeswoman.
She said Huckabee’s campaign planned to “press forward.”
The back of the convention ballroom was abuzz with reports that Romney was leaving the race moments before he addressed the crowd. The former governor suffered losses devastating to his presidential hopes on Super Tuesday.
Romney and his staff said Tuesday night and all through Wednesday that Romney was intent on staying in the race to challenge McCain and Huckabee.
But Wednesday afternoon The Hill reported that Romney planned to meet with his congressional supporters after addressing CPAC.
At CPAC's conference last year, Romney won the straw poll while McCain was booed for skipping the event. The CPAC crowd was dejected when Romney began to hint that he was in fact leaving the race.
With Romney out, McCain is considered by most to be the presumptive frontrunner. That said, Huckabee strung together an impressive slew of Southern victories on Super Tuesday, winning contests in his home state as well as West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.
Boy, does THIS make Huckabee look BAD.
I wonder what the Squirrel Gourmet will have to say.
Romney gave a great speech. He sounded very Presidential. He could be a serious contender in four years.
See tagline.
Maybe a good VP.
This election is a joke. They might as well declare Hillary or Obama the winner as soon as the DNC is finished. I don’t even know why I bothered to register to vote anymore.
darn it, I keep hearing that celine dion song from the Titanic movie in my head, we know how that one ends
I wonder how many others do too?
“Huckabee vows to go on”
It’s all about him.
Moot. Neither can win.
Huck has even less chance of stopping McCain.
No chance that he will have more delegates than Mc. Even if he has enough to keep Mc from having enough before the convention, he’ll give them to McCain.
A vote for Huck is still a vote for McCain.
And I’m finding it very easy to dislike them equally now.
” And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”
Romney added: “I hate to lose.”
This is why I was starting to like him and think about sending a contribution to his campaign.
Who is the most electable Republican to beat the Dhims and stop the defeat of America and Western civilization by stopping the Islamofascist onslaught?
Compromise instead of dogma is sometimes necessary for the greater, longer term good.
If the Dhims win, it will be extremely depressing if not outright dangerous for the country. Can you imagine the beast or naive Dumbo actually being POTUS? I hope we can survive that.
I may even have to move to France. I’ll be leasing Alec Baldwin’s chateau. Wait, I forgot, he didn’t actually move there.
Romney gave a great speech. He sounded very Presidential. He could be a serious contender in four years.
That’s what I’m thinking. If they could just get past the mormon thing like Louisiana got past the Indian thing it could happen!
“He could be a serious contender in four years.”
If America survives that long under the beast or Hussein O’baloney Phony.
It’s a pretty sad day today for the Republican Party. All you got left is a candidate who stabbed his party in the back every chance he got and another one who claims to be a Christian yet said some very un-Christian like things about Romney. The 2008 presidential election will go down in history as a one-party race since you’ll have a democrat and a democrat-lite running. I can’t think of anyway I can hold my nose to keep out the stench that the republican party is about to nominate. If people would vote on what a candidate stands for instead of making the primaries a beauty contest then there’d be no way that McCain would be leading the primary race. I’m afraid that this country, if it can survive the next four years, is going to learn some painful lessons. For me there isn’t a single candidate left that I can in good conscience vote for.
Yup. We’re gonna get our clocks cleaned.
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